Testimonials

Acker Flooring Kurt Acker, Owner
“The cash flow statements and projections you helped me provide to my banker proved to be essential even with my prior strong banking relations. From location to personnel to space considerations; the service you provided me truly allowed me to be more efficient in my planning.”

Amcore Bank Kathleen Campbell, Marketing and Customer Information Manager
"Derrick was instrumental in taking the number of diverse thought and opinions of our senior management and helping us develop a strategy that allowed us to:

identify overall goals and objectives for the facilities and locations,
determine a consistent and effective way of entering and expanding in new markets
build consensus among decision makers at each step of the process
identify key market segments and business approaches to the segments
create a board level presentation of our plan
product supporting maps, demographic analysis and market information”

American Girl Susan Fox, Senior Brand Director
“On behalf of everyone at American Girl, I wanted to thank you for your effective leadership on our retail expansion project. I believe that your planning skills and abilities to facilitate our brand visioning sessions will be the cornerstone for the entire project.”

BankOne Keith Pollek, Vice President
“After investing a respectful amount of time in learning the client’s corporate culture and decision making process, Derrick presented a multi-year Facility Plan which helps my client to better meet today’s needs and to be positioned to accommodate future growth.”

Covance Tom Oakley, CFO
"The effectiveness of the plan Derrick helped us develop has been clearly demonstrated by the results it has helped us deliver. Over the course of the last couple of years, we have been able to present and win Board of Director approval for several significant capital projects. Without the clear linkage of the facility plan to our business strategies, the case for these projects would have been much more difficult to make."

Community Business Bank, Deb Lins, President & CEO
"It has been over fourteen years since the doors of Community Business Bank in Sauk City, Wisconsin first opened. I am still amazed at how our building continues to serve us so well. You helped us plan well early on and took us through the planning of details we would not have thought of, and as a result, we have reaped the benefits of a facility that continues to serve us well as we have grown to $66 million in assets. The ideas and discipline you brought to the table for CBB’s layout, image, cost control and project management are still yielding a great return to our clients, staff and shareholders."

Diesel Injection Service, Inc. Robert Breunig, President
"You helped us make a lot of tough decisions, but your team did a great job and helped us to get a high-value result. Some of the key advice you gave us included using an industrial engineer to get our layout just right, creating an architectural image that reflects our brand and budget, how to hire a good architect, and giving us an honest financial framework."

Epic Systems Corporation Judy Faulkner, CEO
"Derrick, our new building is great."

Group Health Cooperative HMO Kassie Remo, Clinic Operations Director
"Derrick and his associates provided professional review and advice regarding use of space and location preferences. This work was very beneficial to Group Health in our challenge to offer a sufficient number of clinic options across a defined geographic area."

Igarashi Motors Ben Michaud, President
"Derrick and his team provided a good framework for making the decision and gave us the right information about location, facility layout and financial implications. We are now acting on this recommendation and we would use his services again."

Jaeckle Wholesale, Inc. Jeff Jaeckle, President
"Derrick led the process of helping us consider everything from work-flow, to aesthetics, to warehouse design. In short, it was far more than a “square footage” analysis. There is so much that we probably would not have considered or taken into account had it not been for our work with Van Mell Associates."

KishHealth System, Kevin Poorten, President & CEO
"Derrick and Jim challenged our thinking, demonstrated their expertise and creativity in healthcare planning. They know it's not just about design, construction or real estate. It gave me and my management team a lot of confidence as we presented our recommendations to the trustees. We look forward to working with Van Mell Associates in the future."

Neesvig Meats Jim Meyer, President
"Our good results were a direct result of careful needs assessments, good planning and great execution in choosing site, project team and vendors. Thanks again."

Ripon Medical Center Bobbie Pollesch, CFO
"Derrick asked great questions and helped us set a clear set of facility objectives that were liked to our strategic goals."

Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative Larry Clifford, Dir. Product & Member Development
"Derrick’s message regarding building projects being acts of leadership was well received by the audience." (speaking engagement)

Summit Credit Union Andy Faust, President/CEO
"Derrick asked great questions, helped us set clear objectives that were linked to our strategic goals. He provided the logic and information to clearly understand our situation. It was clear that every option was considered and both plans were unanimously approved by our Board of Directors."